A study comparing Millennials with non-Millennials sheds light on some of the key behaviors and attitudes of the generation.

Currently numbered at 79 million — and growing in influence — Millennials are expected to outnumber the Baby Boomer population 78 million to 56 million by 2030.

The Boston Consulting Group recently surveyed 4,000 Millennials aged 16 to 34, as well as 1,000 non-Millennials aged 35 to 40. The report’s complete findings are available online.

via Millennial Consumers: Engaged, Optimistic, Charitable [STUDY].

10. Lists can keep us from procrastinating. We put this one off until the end. Making a list enables us to get our heads around really big tasks — and helps us tackle the work one aspect at a time. But a list is only useful if it reveals a truth, solves a problem or leads to action. Making a list, for instance, does not necessarily help procrastinators. As DePaul University psychologist Joseph Ferrari told Psychology Today in 2008, people don’t put off work they must do because they lack list-making skills. And, in turn, making a list does not get the job done.

via 10 Reasons Why We Love Making Lists : NPR.

Gamification is becoming a hot commodity around the web, but what is it? Is it being used correctly? Let’s have a look at various aspects of gamification and how they can be used and misused.

Gamification is one of those buzz words you’ve probably heard if you’re involved in the internet industry. You’ve probably run across it at some point (perhaps even on Envato sites!) In the same way that personification is the act of attributing characteristics of a person onto another object, gamification is the process of implementing game mechanics into a non-game activity or entity. The purpose is to increase engagement and investment of a user base.

via The Benefits and Pitfalls of Gamification | Webdesigntuts+.

The solution is to stop looking at social media as another platform you have to learn—yet another responsibility—and start seeing it for what it can be instead: a personal toolbox for improving your practice of leadership.

via Using Social Media to Be a Better Leader – WSJ.com.

The goal should be to make the correction as viral as the mistake. But that’s a challenge, and Tuesday at Harvard’s Truthiness in Digital Media conference, I saw (for the first time) what it looks like when we fail.

The presentation by Gilad Lotan, the vice president of research and development for SocialFlow, included a chart that compared the Twitter traffic of an incorrect report to the traffic for the ensuing correction. It’s the Law of Incorrect Tweets visualized:

via Visualized: Incorrect information travels farther, faster on Twitter than corrections | Poynter..

Many marketers have heard of Pinterest, but despite this, most brands have yet to hop on the hottest new social network. In this article, we’ll look at why Pinterest is important to brands and provide seven simple steps for leveraging brand presence on Pinterest.

Pinterest has quickly become one of the top five referring traffic sources for several apparel retailers. A study by Shareaholic in January showed that Pinterest drove only a fraction less referral traffic than both Twitter and Google, and more than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined.

Despite the powerful numbers, most brands and merchandisers are not present on Pinterest. There’s no DKNY, Macy’s, Walmart, Target, etc.

For those brands looking to develop a Pinterest presence, try these seven simple steps.

via 8 Strategies for Launching a Brand Presence on Pinterest.

If you thought corporate titans spent all their time ensconced in ivory towers — too important to engage in social media — think again. Here’s a chart based on research that ranks the top 25 most social-media-active chief information officers CIOs of the Fortune 250.These social scores, developed by Social Strategist and Forbes columnist Mark Fidelman for cross-platform enterprise software developer harmon.ie, list which CIOs are the most socially active by examining and compiling activity on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ accounts, as well as counting mentions on social networks, corporate and individual blogs, Alexa scores, and simply Googling their information.

via Top 25 Most Social CIOs: Who’s the Most Active in Social Media? [CHART].

Pinterest is now the number three most-popular social network in the U.S., behind Facebook and Twitter, according to Experian Hitwise.

A new report from the researcher shows Pinterest got 21.5 million visits during the week ending Jan. 28, a nearly 30-fold increase over a comparable week in July. Not surprisingly, the site skews female with a 60/40 ration of women to men visitors.

via Pinterest is Now the No. 3 Social Network in the U.S. [STUDY].

Do you want your Pinterest images to stand out and get repinned? With more than 12 million users posting pictures to the image-based social network, it’s important to make sure images grab the attention of fellow Pinterest users. A properly optimized pin can make all the difference between 50 repins or no repins.

This infographic from Pinnable Business gives you information to optimize every pin you post — it includes best practices for sizing, linking, sharing and repinning.

Give these tips a try and let us know if they make a difference on your Pinterest boards.

via How to Make Images Stand Out on Pinterest [INFOGRAPHIC].

Different brands have different challenges when it comes to customer acquisition: “If you’re our customer, you’ve signed up for a year-long service, unlike the Starbucks of the world, where you can be a customer by coming in for a cup of coffee one day,” says Lisa D’Aromando, social media community manager at Equinox. Whether you’re a clothing shop, a restaurant or a subscription service, you must tailor your strategy so that it makes sense for your brand. That said, there are a few universal ways to help your company attract new faces on the social web.

via 6 Ways to Acquire New Customers via Social Media.